Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co.est. 1899 · San Antonio, Texas

H and H Product Line

The full range of Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Company products as documented in the August 26, 1923 San Antonio Light special edition. The slogan across all products: “We roast it, others praise it.” Tea products carried the secondary slogan: “You’ll praise it, too.”

Trademark — “We Roast It, Others Praise It”

The slogan was a registered U.S. trademark:

The clipping (USPTO Official Gazette page) is held at assets/images/gallery/1922-04-10-us-patent-office-trademark-we-roast-it.jpg. A second scan (filename 20150703-172340_H&H Coffee_.jpg in work/inbox/) shows the same registration with subtly different transcribed numbers (160,778 / 161,997). The five-digit difference (728/778; 907/997) is small enough to be transcription error rather than two filings; resolve by pulling the original USPTO record before quoting the numbers in publication copy.

How “Reg. U.S. Pat. Off.” reads on artifacts

On surviving H&H retail goods, language that looks like federal registration clusters around the house slogan and vacuum / Crystalvac messaging — not a separate “Reg. U.S. Pat. Off.” line per coffee name on the roster.

Until further USPTO filings are confirmed, treat “Reg. U.S. Pat. Off.” on H&H artifacts as pointing at registered wording (the slogan) and at Crystalvac container marking — not as proof that each named brand (Sam Houston, Texas Girl, Master Chef, Broncho, etc.) carries its own serial number.

Open research on federal filings

Reasonable next steps for tightening the federal-registration record:

  1. USPTO Trademark Assignment Search — assignor/assignee strings tied to Hoffmann-Hayman or successor names after plant closure.
  2. Official Gazette (1920s–1970s) — full-text or indexed library copies; search registrant name alongside known marks and spelling variants (Hoffmann-Hayman, Hoffman-Hayman, H and H).
  3. Certified copies / file histories — use registration 160,728/160,778 and serial 161,907/161,997 as anchors for related applications from the same era; the certified copy will also resolve the transcription discrepancy.

Until those pulls are done, the 1922 slogan registration is the only documented federal trademark record on the table; everything else is brand history from ads, tins, and newspaper clippings.

Coffee

For end-to-end chronology and the documented brand-attrition pattern see Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Company § Brand portfolio — mid-century reshape. This section is the per-brand index.

Flagship and house

Morrison-acquired (Feb 1917)

The 28 Jan 1917 Morrison acquisition announcement names five brands H&H committed to continue packing. Only Texco reaches the 1942 wholesale sheets.

Mid-century retail (1923–1942)

Postwar additions and packaging-tech wordmarks

Sizes and packaging (1923-era)

Tea

For the full leaf page see H and H Tea.

Making H and H Iced Tea (1923 instructions)

1 heaping teaspoonful per two cups; freshly boiled water; infuse 5–6 minutes; draw off into another vessel; add ice; sweeten to taste; add lemon.

Spices

For the full leaf page see H and H Spices.

Extracts

For the full leaf page see H and H Extracts.

Cocoa

For the full leaf page see H and H Cocoa.

Packaging

All products packed in tin. Tins supplied by the New Orleans Can Co. (New Orleans, Louisiana — “first to decorate metal south of the Ohio River”). Multi-color lithography in red, white and blue. Products also packed in cartons (supplied by Globe Folding Box Co., Cincinnati).

Coffee tins: “We roast it, others praise it” embossed on side panel and top. Tea tins: “You’ll praise it, too” embossed on top and front.

Roasting equipment

Monitor Coffee Roasting, Grading and Other Machinery by Huntley Manufacturing Co., Silver Creek, N.Y.

Original hand roaster capacity: 30 lbs (c.1908). By 1920: two large roasters, capacity frequently reaching 10,000 lbs/day.

Distribution

Master Chef Coffee (1961 Broggi radio transcription disc)

A 44.5-second advertising recording — labelled by transcriber as “H and H Coffee advertising record from 1961”, TRACK 1 — survives on a digitized black lacquer transcription disc. The recording promotes Master Chef Coffee with a trading-stamps premium.

Production credits (per project’s _galleries/reference.md):

Files:

Voice production: three voices — opening announcer (slate), a primary singer/announcer (“Speaker 2”) for product copy, and a secondary announcer (“Speaker 3”) for the premium call-outs. Format suggests a sponsored radio spot with sung jingle, structured for local-station insertion — consistent with mid-century San Antonio agency-cut transcription work.

Copy points (1961):

Why it matters:

  1. Trading-stamps tie-in — places H and H squarely in the early-1960s redemption-stamp economy (S&H Green Stamps, Top Value, etc.), confirming consumer-channel positioning vs. the institutional/restaurant base documented in the May 1960 succession article.
  2. Master Chef as a flagship consumer brand — by 1961, Master Chef has graduated from the 1932 “Cafe Coffee” restaurant SKU to the headline brand in radio advertising, consistent with the 1960 product slate (Master Chef Coffee + Master Chef Instant Coffee).
  3. Audio survives where print does not — first known audio-format primary source in the wiki; preserves the actual cadence, tagline phrasing, and jingle structure of late-period H&H advertising.
  4. Agency identified — Broggi (San Antonio) — adds a third documented H&H advertising vendor alongside Pitluk Advertising Co. (1923) and the in-house “largest coffee advertising campaign” of 1919. Broggi’s involvement in 1961 may indicate a vendor change after the 1960 Albert G. Menger transition.

Open questions:

See also